Reapers Never Smile

by Stephanie Prochaska

  As soon as she was done, Mindy grabbed her things and rushed back out of the circle. The result of whatever she’d done was almost instantaneous. A bright white light shot straight out of the lamp and up into the sky. I watched as the light spread outward like a tidal wave towards the edges of the circle. The light was so bright, even Samantha had to finally take notice of something other than me. She turned around, watching as the light came towards her. It happened so fast, she barely even had time to move. The white light swelled to the edge of the salt border, filling up the entire area. As it touched the salt, the light turned various shades of red and purple. After a few seconds of just hanging there, the light receded back to a two foot radius around the lamp, taking Samantha along with it.

  I stared in disbelief; the column was so thick and so bright I couldn’t see through it even to where the lamp stood. I’d expected it to fade out all the way, but it just stayed there, surrounding the lamp. Like it was waiting for something. I started to slowly walk around the perimeter of the salt circle, never taking my eyes off the column of light. I was staring so hard that I almost bumped straight into Mindy.

  “I’ll be right back.” she said to me.

  “What? Where are you going?” I asked. How could she possibly leave at a time like this?

  “She’s my responsibility.” Mindy told me, nodding over to the light. She hopped over the salt line and walked towards the light in the center of the circle. Without another word, she disappeared into the light, leaving me and Derek alone in the parking lot.

  Chapter 39

  “Well, that was pretty crazy.” Derek said. We were still standing in the dark, staring at the light in the center of the circle.

  “You’re telling me.” I replied. “I wonder what happened to Mindy.”

  “Oh, she’s taking Samantha to… wherever it is they go.”

  I wanted to ask how he knew, but I was too worn out to bother. It seemed like forever, but I’m sure it was only a few minutes until Mindy came back. She stepped out of the light and walked over towards us. As soon as she was clear, the column of light collapsed, leaving the three of us in the dark with nothing but a beaten up old lamp and a badly smudged salt line.

  “Thanks for helping.” Mindy told me.

  “No problem.” I said. “I didn’t really do much though.”

  “Sure you did. You were a distraction so that Derek could set the oil and water up and I could get close enough to actually use them.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about being nothing but a distraction, but I did know I would have at least liked to have been told.

  “Derek and I talked about it this afternoon. We didn’t tell you because there wasn’t enough time. It’s not like we could just take you aside and explain it real quick – not with her following you around all the time.”

  I didn’t say anything for a minute. I was still annoyed at them for leaving me to face Samantha’s wrath by myself. But as much as I didn’t like it, I could see what she was saying.

  “I’m glad we got her.” I said finally.

  I looked out towards the lamp. The flame had gone dark when the light that took Samantha faded away, and it was kind of hard to see in the darkness. It looked so harmless that I was having a hard time believing it was the same lamp that had rested ominously on my desk for almost seven months.

  “Do you want to smash it?” Derek asked, interrupting my thoughts.

  I looked at Mindy. As if she’d read my mind, she told me, “It’s not dangerous anymore. And Samantha won’t be coming back. Ever. But if you want to destroy it…” she made a sweeping gesture with her hand. “Be my guest.”

  I looked back at the lamp, sitting there peacefully, looking almost innocent. It twinkled dully, but for the most part, the life had gone out of it. I wished that I’d never found it. I walked up to the lamp and kicked it as hard as I could, my foot connecting solidly with its base. The glass separated from the bottom and the two pieces went flying through the air. The base landed with a clatter. The glass shattered to pieces as it hit the ground some twenty feet away.

  Chapter 40

  It had been hard to get to sleep after the showdown with Samantha, and I’d ended up sitting in my bed with the light on, looking at my desk. Even with the ugly black scorch marks across it, it’d never looked so good as it did now that the lamp was off it.

  I was tired the next day in school, but it was so worth it. When I saw Derek, I could tell he’d slept about as good as I did. He had bags under his eyes, and he was supporting his head with his arm.

  “So how’d it feel to go home a free man?” Derek asked me.

  “It was so great. I couldn’t even believe it was real.” I told him.

  “I’ll bet. I can’t imagine being in contact with Samantha that much for that long.”

  “It didn’t start out so bad. But yeah, it got pretty intense at the end.”

  “Good thing you don’t have to worry about it anymore.” Mindy said, sitting down. Of course, she looked like she’d gone right home and slept like a baby.

  “Yeah.” I said.

  “And the people in charge were very happy to have her. So thank you both.” she told us.

  “So, I have just one question. Why did Samantha haunt an old oil lamp anyway?” Derek asked Mindy. He’d asked me before, but I’d never been able to answer. Hopefully Mindy could shed some light on that.

  “Usually when a ghost is attached to an object like that it’s because it has some special significance to them.” she said.

  “That makes sense. She told me it was the last thing she saw.” I said.

  “So it was in Milner’s house then?” Derek asked, raising his eyebrows.

  That made me pause. I knew Samantha had died at in Milner’s pool. But before that, she’d been up in a tree, staring through his window. The lamp must have been sitting in his room; it was the only way she could have possibly seen it.

  “It must have been.” I said slowly. “So how did it end up in a back alley buried in a pile of junk?”

  “Oh…” Derek said, turning pale.

  “What?” I demanded.

  “After Samantha died, there was a fire at Milner’s house. I didn’t really think it was important because Samantha was gone – for the most part, all the weirdness had already stopped. We all just thought it was a coincidence.”

  “So you think that she caused that fire, too?”

  “It certainly fits with her personality.” Mindy spoke up.

  “But why would she set a fire there? Milner was the only person she ever seemed to actually like.” I pointed out.

  “She might not have meant to. It’s possible she was visiting him and something upset her. If she was newly dead, she probably didn’t have the control over the lamp yet.”

  “Even if it was an accident, if my lamp caught fire, I’d give it away too.” Derek said. “Especially after all those fire scares.”

  “Definitely.” I agreed. I wondered how many other people had tried that lamp out and met the ghost who haunted it. I wondered if they’d been scared as badly as me. I shrugged; at least no one would ever have to worry about her again.

  Chapter 41

  It had been a month since my after-class talk with Mr. Guerra when I walked into history with my new ten page paper in hand. I’d decided to go back to my original idea of writing about ancient China. I didn’t really have enough books to write about the Roman Empire, and at this point I wasn’t sure if what I knew about the Roman Empire was true or if it was just stuff that Samantha had made up anyway.

  As soon as class was over, I headed up to Mr. Guerra’s desk. He seemed surprised for a second, as if he’d almost forgotten I still had a paper due. The expression quickly passed as I handed him what I’d written. He thumbed through it, skimming quickly to get an overview.

  “Very good, James.” he told me.

  “Thanks for letting me redo my paper.” I said. And I wasn’t just trying t
o suck up before he graded it either. I knew I hadn’t put much effort into my first paper, and it had obviously shown. I was actually pretty lucky he’d given me the option of redoing it. If he hadn’t, there was a good chance I’d fail the whole course, and I knew my mom would kill me if that ever happened.

  As confident as I was in my last paper, I was even more sure about this one. This time, I hadn’t just taken someone else’s word about what the civilization was like – I’d actually done the research and I knew everything was true. And two weeks later, when I finally got the paper back, the B+ I’d gotten made me feel happier than I ever would have thought possible.

  I was still feeling pretty good about that paper when I rounded the corner coming out of the gym and came face to face with Milner. I’d seen him around a couple of times since the thing with Samantha had ended, of course; the school wasn’t that big. But this was the first time I’d really felt like talking to him. Maybe it was the relief of never having to look Samantha in the face again, or in knowing I wouldn’t have to worry about telling her every little detail about my talking to him anymore. Maybe it was the look on his face as he sat alone on the bench across from the empty cafeteria. Whatever it was, I found myself walking over to him. He looked up, a weary smile on his face.

  “Hey,” I said when I got close enough.

  “Hey.”

  “I wanted to apologize to you for that whole thing between us at the beginning of the year.”

  He stared at me for a second before responding.

  “What thing?” he asked.

  I felt a little bad for reminding him, but at the same time I was having a hard time believing he didn’t know what I was talking about. Oh well, I thought. It was too late to back out now.

  “About Samantha?” I asked, hoping to jog his memory. “I just wanted to let you know that I didn’t mean anything by it. Someone had just told me to ask you, and I just… I didn’t know. I’m sorry.” I stood there for a moment while he chewed it over in silence. I felt like a complete jerk for reminding him yet again of his old stalker. Realizing that I only seemed to make the situation worse when I tried to talk to him, I started to leave. Before I’d even taken a step, a hand reached out and grabbed my shoulder. I turned around to see Milner had gotten up off the bench and was now standing next to me.

  “It’s ok.” He smiled at me, and I actually started to feel like it maybe it was alright.

  “Thanks.” I told him.

  “You weren’t here last year, so how could you know?”

  “But still… ” I started.

  “And it’s not like you had a whole lot of people around here talking to you. Even if you heard the name, you had no way of knowing how the school felt about her.”

  He had a point. If any of them had been willing to actually talk to me, none of this would have happened. Six months ago, I would have been mad. I would have thought they weren’t talking to me because of their experiences with Samantha and that it wasn’t fair; just because we’d both moved to the same school didn’t mean I’d act the same as her. But after this whole ordeal, I couldn’t say I blamed them. I could see why they were so suspicious of others, especially Karen’s group. And as annoyed as I was, I knew they weren’t the only ones to blame.

  “It was partially my fault too. I didn’t exactly try my hardest to make friends.” Except with Karen, I added silently. And of course, hers would be the one group that would probably never accept new members.

  It was funny; even after all these months, hearing Eric apologize made me kind of happy. “At least I know it wasn’t personal.” I told him.

  “Of course not.” he told me. “So, I know it’s a little late for basketball, but if you want, baseball’s starting up soon. I seem to remember you being pretty good at hitting a ball.”

  Chapter 42

  By the time the last day of school finally came, I had to admit I was more than ready for it. The whole year had been one crazy adventure that I hoped I’d never have to repeat. It was funny, but once Samantha was finally gone forever, something about the school seemed to change. I didn’t know if she really had a hold on the whole place, or if it was just the weight being lifted from my chest, but it seemed like people around me finally started opening up. I’d ended up on the baseball team after all, and I’d finally made friends with Milner, Karen, and the rest of their crowd.

  But on the day of the ceremony, the only people I felt like standing next to were Derek and Mindy. We’d been through so much together, and I knew that no matter what happened in the future, they were two friends I’d have for the rest of my life – they’d be there no matter what I did or where I went next.

  ……